Content, and the various types or forms of content that have been developed, has ushered in the use of associated data commonly referred to as metadata. The development of metadata has itself evolved into an array of metadata types and forms. In its earliest manifestation, metadata provided basic information associated with the content. For example, a photograph might have associated metadata for providing the time the photograph was taken, the particular camera and camera settings used to take the photograph, and even information identifying the copyright holder. As metadata has evolved, the amount of information that can be stored in association with content may be viewed as another form of content itself, i.e. a “meta-content,” in that the meta-content may exist separately from the content and take on an independent purpose of its own. In other words, meta-content may exist independently from its associated “primary” content. Although the term “meta-content” may appear to blur the demarcation between content as a form of data, and metadata, the term “meta-content” should be understood as referring to secondary content that provides information about a primary content or, alternatively, secondary content that is associated with a primary content. For example, search engines may use meta-content to enable producing search results for a wide range of criteria related to a primary content. Alternatively, meta-content may include information relating to a study or analysis of the primary content.
Primary content may contain personal information, or other sensitive information, and may have various related secondary content, i.e. meta-content such as, associated video clips, voice-overs and/or independent sections such as headlines, local news, international news, sports, weather, entertainment, etc. which are not independently identifiable. However, the meta-content may include some, or all, of the personal information or other sensitive information contained in the primary content.
Examples of this include simultaneous streams for textual description of the primary content (such as mentioned briefly above, where title, associated video clips, and voice-overs describe each section), scene segmentation based on audiovisual signal processing and scene boundary detection, parallel feed insertion where specific sections are associated with secondary content to be associated exclusively with that particular section), key frame extraction with automatic storyboarding, document authorship, and others. As a result, there is a risk that pieces of information from various pieces of meta-content may be aggregated and/or correlated to obtain personal information or other sensitive information that creates a risk of privacy invasion as well as other possible security concerns.